01860cas a2200241 a 4500 AALejournalIMF006406 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781451982725 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Wezel, Torsten. Bank Efficiency amid Foreign Entry : Evidence from the Central American Region / Torsten Wezel. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2010. 1 online resource (33 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students This paper investigates the efficiency of domestic and foreign banks in the Central American region during 2002-07. Using two main empirical approaches, Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Analysis, the paper finds that foreign banks are not necessarily more efficient than their domestic counterparts. If anything, the regional banks that were acquired by global banks in a wave of acquisitions during 2005-07 can keep up with the local institutions. The efficiency of these acquired banks, however, is shown to have dropped during the acquisition year, recovering only slightly thereafter. Finally, it is important to account for the environment in which banks operate, as country-, sector- and firm-specific characteristics are found to have a considerable influence on bank efficiency. Mode of access: Internet IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2010/095 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2010/095/001.2010.issue-095-en.xml IMF e-Library